Historical Formations
This page is a listing of a number of historical naval formations containing ships that appear in KanColle. Note that many of these formations had multiple 'generations', that ships were often part of multiple formations at a time, and that accurate historical records of these units are very difficult to ascertain. Multiple reorganizations occurred over the course of the war as losses took their toll. Battle Squadrons In Japanese, there is no distinction drawn between Battleship and Cruiser divisions, they are simply called "squadrons" (sentai). Carrier Divisions The Carrier Divisions (Koukuu sentai) were part of a different fleet system than the Battlegroups and Torpedo Squadrons, though they often had Destroyer Divisions attached to them to act as escorts. The japanese names of the Carrier divisions are often shortened by the shipgirls, for instance 第一航空戦隊, "Dai-ichi Koukuu Sentai" is shortened to 一航戦, "Ikkousen". ''In most translations, this is written as abbreviating "First Carrier Division" to "CarDiv1." Torpedo Squadrons Torpedo Squadrons (''Suirai sentai) and their sub-components, Destroyer Divisions (Kuchikutai), were created as part of the Japanese plan to slowly wear down American forces as they came across the Pacific with superior night-fighting and long-range torpedo bombardment tactics. They were led by a single Light Cruiser flagship supervising a number of Destroyer Divisions. Destroyer Divisions who have no members implemented in KanColle are not mentioned. Some sources translate 'Torpedo Squadron' as 'Destroyer Squadron', it is this that is abbreviated to 'Desron' Submarine Squadrons Because there were many, many Submarines and Submarine Tenders which are not represented in Kancolle, this section is a bit sparse. It is included primarily to show the ships that were part of any Submarine Squadrons or Submarine Divisions. Fleets The IJN had a number of different 'Fleet' units of varying purposes and sizes. They were primarily administrative formations rather than combat formations. All were considered part of the "Combined Fleet", which was the primary administrative unit of the IJN. It is included separately to show the ships and units that were directly attached to it. Battle Participants progress The main battles of the war that featured implemented ships. Note that while ships are listed as sunk (be that actually sunk, beached or destroyed beyond repair) many ships were heavily damaged or crippled however for reasons of space these are not listed. For consistancy Axis ships appear as the top listing and Allies below. Generally speaking ships appear roughly in size/importance order with the flagship first, no set order beyond that. Aeroplane count is listed seperately from fleets and includes land and carrier planes where appropriate, generally sourced from Wiki for consistancy's sake. However as a result take these numbers with a pinch of salt, as they may be incorrect or not match up, and in some cases have been approximated by me by logical assumption. Late war Japanese aicraft losses are extra heavy because of Kamikaze attacks. Note ~ means approximately. For simplicity main sources are Wikipedia and navweaps.com, with some books used as reference. Pacific Theatre: Atlantic & Mediterranean Theatre: